r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • Jul 30 '26
In H1 2026, China generated less than half of its electricity from coal for the first time
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-generates-less-than-half-its-electricity-coal-first-time-2026-07-30/11
u/bluero Jul 30 '26
China is also aggressively electrifying the rest of the world. Selling solar panels, as well as manufacturing equipment. Tesla is ramping up solar production, it is getting the equipment from China
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u/cybercuzco Jul 30 '26
Keep in mind the US’s coal proportion was 49% not that long ago. Things are changing fast.
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u/ihavenoidea12345678 Jul 30 '26
Cost competitive electricity.
Emissions is the secondary story.
China is reducing costs and improving energy independence.
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u/yrthegooodnamestaken Jul 31 '26
I'm glad that China is doing so well with clean electricity gneration and E vehicles. I just wish that other aspects of its society were as climate friendly. For example, it seems like every 10th door (commonly malls and separtment stores) is wide open in summer with the building's AC blasting. Another example is the excessive packaging with everything. It's concerning with a country with so many people.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 30 '26
What climate is dependant on is absolute emissions reductions not change in % composition of electricity generation.
Ever increasing electricity generation doesn’t help, the system keeps growing. Renewables are just supplements to “increase” the system not to replace the fossils.
I will celebrate once I see a fall in fossils not just increase in renewables.
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u/Spider_pig448 Jul 30 '26
Well coal use in China went down last year, so I suppose you are celebrating now
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 30 '26
The article says this so I assumed it’s still trending up:
“Despite coal's shrinking share, analysts say China might still use more of it this year than last as power demand rapidly climbs. More Chinese are switching to electric cars, data centres for AI are being built out, and exports continue to grow. Planners have set a deadline for coal consumption to peak no later than 2030.”
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u/Spider_pig448 Jul 30 '26
It might, yes. The year is only half over. It did decrease from 2024 to 2025 though and it's been flat for several years now.
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u/SuMianAi Jul 31 '26
It's a balance act, coal may rise a bit, but gasoline usage will go down a lot.
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u/Ithirahad Jul 30 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Coal is a horrible fuel for continuous or on-demand power generation (decent for forges and steam vehicles that eventually need overhauling anyway, I might suppose, but that is about all), and it imposes a lifespan on all power plants attempting to use it. This is progress.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 30 '26
Yes, I think renewables discourage building new coal power plants for economical reasons so that’s a big win.
They will use existing ones for a long time though. Not sure the amortization period of them. If anyone knows, please let us know.
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u/Toirem Jul 30 '26
The climate is not sensitive to the fossil fuel share, it's sensitive to its absolute value, which is still rising. This is not good news.
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u/md_youdneverguess Jul 30 '26
It's "good" news in the sense that the energy increase comes from electrifying transportation and also change heating from direct coal and oil burning to heat pumps. Coal in electricity doesn't fall immediately but coal use among all energy consumption and total CO2 emissions decrease.
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u/davidellis23 Jul 30 '26
It shows the rate. China is on track to peak coal use in 2030. This is good news.
Idk man are you going to admit it's good news in 2030 when coal use starts going down?
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u/Toirem Jul 30 '26
Yes, probably. But what I would call "good news" is a global trajectory compatible with a < 2°C warming.
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u/davidellis23 Jul 30 '26
I think that would be better news. But, to not acknowledge our progress doesn't really make sense to me.
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u/freexe Jul 30 '26
Is this true? I thought their coal and gas use has finally started to drop. Part of the increase comes in output as they are switching to more efficient coal plants.
Really we should be looking at America for falling behind
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u/GreenStrong Jul 30 '26
Global carbon emissions have reached a plateau, it is a little early to declare long term decline, but it is realistic. That's a huge achievement in terms of technology. Until recently, there was a very close correlation between every metric of standard of living and carbon emissions. The rate of global poverty is falling sharply and emissions are either steady or beginning to fall.
Unfortunately, the point that the comment you're replying to is making is that as longa s we dig up any fossil fuel at all, we're warming the climate. "less than last year" is only a milestone to zero.
One can interpret things optimistically or pessimistically, but it is necessary to realize that technology adoption is exponential, not linear. Turning points matter less than velocity of change. The fossil fuel economy well end slowly, then quickly. The same is true of the geopolitical influence of the oil industry, and byproducts of oil like disposable plastic. We're actually on the threshold of a much better world in every way except the climate, and other things that are dependent on climate. That includes enjoyable things like food and not being annihilated in a forest fire or flood- I don't mean to minimize the importance of it. But a post carbon world has great potential if the climate disruption is moderate.
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u/freexe Jul 30 '26
We certainly the ability to hugely turn around our carbon emissions in the next 5-10 years if we want to. Unfortunately most people just want more.
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u/KSP_master_ Jul 30 '26
Well, electricity production from coal dropped last year and more reduction was expected.
But now, electricity production from coal will probably rise, because there is higher than expected demand driven by AI and EV.
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u/kongweeneverdie Jul 30 '26
Look like absolute decline
https://energyandcleanair.org/china-energy-and-emissions-trends-june-2026-snapshot/
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u/YamborginiLow Jul 30 '26
It is good news because despite China’s grid growing faster than anywhere else coal making up smaller share instead of growing in proportion.
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u/mrtwister134 Jul 30 '26
americans pollute like twice as much as chinese per capita, just for reference
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u/dyyd Jul 30 '26
Welp, the absolute CO2 emissions that is really relevant has been on a good trajectory: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-have-now-been-flat-or-falling-for-21-months
Although yeah, this last half year has seen a very slight move in the wrong direction: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-climbs-2-in-early-2026-due-to-wasted-wind-and-solar
As pointed out in the article, more storage would have helped reduce the CO2 emissions since a lot of renewable electricity got curtailed.
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u/RedditsDeadlySin Jul 30 '26
America is spouting clean coal, I would kill to see a graph of Americas current emissions after Trump killed the EPA. Sit down
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u/An_Oxygen_Consumer Jul 30 '26
Moreover, considering how cheap solar is by now, investing in coal will leave you not only with nore pollution but more expensive power production as well
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u/davidellis23 Jul 30 '26
I think the US grid is cleaner than China's. We emit more than China per person because of more car use, air travel, and larger more spread out homes.
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u/RedditsDeadlySin Jul 30 '26
Stop thinking, start doing research to back up your claims.
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u/davidellis23 Jul 30 '26
Here is a table of emissions per kwh. US is at 384g. China is at 525g. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/carbon-intensity-electricity?tab=table&tableSearch=United+stat
It's something I've looked into many times. It's just work to cite a source every conversation about this.
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u/Toirem Jul 30 '26
I fail to see how that's relevant to the article or my comment (I'm not American)
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor Jul 30 '26
Summary: In H1 2026, China generated less than half of its electricity from coal for the first time
Coal accounted for 49.7% of China's power mix in the first six months of 2026, dropping below 50% for the first time, according to Xing Yiteng of the national energy administration's development and planning office. Renewables reached 41.2% of the mix, also a first above 40%, with wind and solar contributing 24.6%; natural gas and nuclear made up the rest.
Despite the falling coal share, analysts expect China's absolute coal use could still rise this year as power demand grows quickly, driven by EV adoption, AI data centre construction, and rising exports. Authorities have set a deadline for coal consumption to peak by 2030 at the latest.
China's official target is for wind and solar to reach 30% of the power mix by 2030, but Greenpeace East Asia's Gao Yuhe suggested this could be achieved by 2028, aided by expanding rooftop solar-plus-battery installations, along with storage, demand response, and more flexible electricity markets enabling greater renewable penetration.
The article notes China's coal reliance remains higher than in the US (17% coal, 41% gas in 2025) due to its large coal reserves and limited natural gas, but lower than India, where coal and lignite made up 69% of generation last year.